


The Girl From The Future

by W01FS0NG



Series: Torchwood: Rift Files [1]
Category: Doctor Who (2005), Firefly, Serenity (2005), Torchwood
Genre: Character Death, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, Cybermen - Freeform, Gen, Reavers - Freeform, Season/Series 02, Time Travel, Torchwood Hub, Weeping Angels - Freeform, Welsh mythology - Freeform, weevils
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-05
Updated: 2021-03-07
Packaged: 2021-03-18 22:08:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,232
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29864778
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/W01FS0NG/pseuds/W01FS0NG
Summary: Torchwood was having a relaxing day. Emphasis on was. Just who is this mysterious girl?
Series: Torchwood: Rift Files [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2195661
Comments: 4
Kudos: 4





	1. Her Arrival

**Author's Note:**

> This is part of a little Torchwood one-shot series that I will have going.

Toshiko thought that for once it might be a relaxing day at work. It was nearly three in the afternoon. She just had to be proven wrong when a monitor started beeping. 

“Uh, guys?” She projected to her teammates, semi-scattered across the Hub. “I’m getting some very strange readings!”

“What sort?” Owen asked as he walked up to her.

The tech woman redid the scan and squinted her eyes with suspicion. “It seems like it could be the Rift, but there’s something else.”

“Where is it?” Questioned Jack as he rushed into her workspace. The state of his jacket and shirt almost made him look disheveled. Ianto quickly followed in after him. Then, Gwen appeared.

After some typing on her computer, she hesitated in answering his inquiry. The Japanese woman swallowed hard. “Here.”

“What?!” Gwen nearly screeched.

“Sorry, did you say, ‘here?’” Owen asked, giving his teammates strange looks.

Sato nodded and shrugged. “There's nothing that suggests otherwise.” 

They all started glancing around the place. Out of the left corner of his eye, Jack saw a teenager he didn’t think he’d see again. The rest walked towards the mysterious person, who appeared near the rift manipulator. They shared a look. Tosh couldn’t help but notice Owen’s gun, slightly raised.

“Aurelia?” Jack said, making sure this was the girl. He stepped towards her, placing his hands on her hoodie-clad shoulders. 

Aurelia flinched, stepping back slightly. The teen glanced up at him through a lock of hair covering her right eye. The optics held so much fear. His hold on her became lighter.

“Y-your that time agent,” she recognized. The teen had an American accent, like Jack. Immediately after, her head and eyes frantically turned around. “Where are they?! Are we safe?”

The captain gripped her arms, making her turn to him. “Aurelia, listen to me, the Weeping Angels aren’t here.” His orbs flickered between hers. “Okay?”

Her lips made a thin line before she averted her gaze and nodded. “Okay.” Her eyes widened. “Where are the Reavers?”

He gave her a kind look. “Not here either, but they were a pain to track down through time.”

She gave him a strange look. “Through time?”

The brunette man nodded. “That’s what they do, they feed on your potential energy and send you back through time.” He walked around her. “What I don’t understand, is how those Angels managed to not only send you back in time, but through space.”

Her optics wandered about the building. “What is this place?”

The man stepped back with outstretched arms. “This is Torchwood.” Her eyes widened again. With hands in his pockets, the leader of Torchwood asked, “Now, do you still have it?”

Aurelia nodded, fishing the Sonic Screwdriver out of her pocket. The teen tilted her head. “Still want it?” 

He shook his head. “Keep it.”

She frowned, seeing that someone wasn’t there. “Where’s your partner?”

His hands grasped each other behind him. He took in a breath before speaking. “We’re no longer together.” He swallowed. “And I’m not a member of the Time Agency anymore.”

“Oh,” she said, putting the Time Lord device pack into her pocket. “So, have you been able to locate her?”

“The Scholar?” She nodded eagerly. His face fell. “No, I’m afraid not.” She huffed and frowned. 

Gwen stepped forward, saying, “Uh, sorry, but could you both explain what’s going on here?” Aurelia’s eyes squinted at her.

“Uh, right, sorry,” Jack stated. He then gestured to his team. “This is Toshiko Sato, Owen Harper, Gwen Cooper, and Ianto Jones. Guys, this is Aurelia Arellano. She’s from the year 4997.” The teen smiled slightly and waved at them. She received a few smiles from three of them. “She traveled with a Time Lord known as the Scholar until they were both teleported somewhere in time by time-sapping creatures.”

Just as Toshiko was about to ask a question, her scanners beeped again. Stepping back towards her station, she announced, “Something else is popping up in town.” Multiple dots appeared on her maps. She typed again on her computer. “The readings indicate that they’re human, but-”

“Tosh, where are they?” the Captain asked her in a firm voice. 

“Above the Hub.” 

Panicked, the group all took the lift above ground with their guns drawn. To Jack and Aurelia’s shock and horror, five Reavers stood right in front of them. Blood was smeared all over them. They had long, matted hair. Their clothes were in tatters, and they held swords and blasters.

“Reavers,” the teenager whispered, her voice quivering. “You have to kill them.” She started backing up. “Right now. Don’t let them escape, and don’t let them get close.”

“Oi, we don’t take orders from you, princess,” Owen stated, glancing back at her.

One of the Reavers fired a blaster bolt at them, causing the group to duck. Those with guns fired back. After another brief exchange of fire, the group decided to take cover behind the giant water feature.

“I thought you said you took care of them, Harkness!” Aurelia chastised him.

“I didn’t think there were more than ten.” The man responded. He glanced back at the rage-filled humans before firing at them again. 

One of the Reavers leapt from the cover of pillar to pillar until he was in front of them. From there, he ran up to the group with an unsheathed machete. Gwen and Ianto shot at it, watching as he fell to the ground only to get back up again with rage. When they shot at him again, the man was dead. 

Aurelia laughed. “And to think they would be brought down by such primitive weapons,” she muttered. Cautiously, she ran up to him and grabbed his weapon.

“Arellano, no,” Jack tried to command her. The teenager already ran after the other Reavers.

“You’re taking too long!” She yelled back.

“Is she crazy?” Owen shouted, peeking out from behind the water feature. A blaster bolt missed his head by a centimeter. Their eyes all followed her to see the teenager kick, punch, and stab at the rage-induced humans.

Aurelia slaughtered the four that were left. She stood, staring at them with her machete in hand. Her shoulders and chest rose and fell.

“Eta kuram na cmekh!” Harkness shouted. He then ran towards her as she fell to the ground.

“What the fuck was that?” Gwen questioned as she walked towards him with a fast pace.

As the captain picked the girl up, he said, “I’ll tell you later.” He then projected to Ianto, “Destroy these bodies for me please?”

“Right away, sir,” Jones stated before walking towards the Reavers.

Once back inside Torchwood’s Hub, Jack had her handcuffed in a cell. The three remaining members followed him, skeptical about the entire thing.

“Is that really necessary?” Cooper questioned the leader. The man in question had just locked the cell. Now, the four of them walked into the boardroom.

“Not exactly,” he sighed. “It’s just a precaution. The Scholar was working on getting her programming removed, so I don’t know how much longer she’ll stay unconscious.”

“Programming?” Tosh questioned, thinking about the sleeper agent from five weeks ago. “Is she like-”

“No, she’s not like Beth,” said Jack as they sat in the seats. His head tilted. “Actually, I’m not really sure whose situation is worse.”

“Jack, who is she?” Gwen pressed, she leaned forward in her chair with her arms resting on the table.

“Yeah, and who is this Scholar person you keep talking about?” Owen inquired as he leaned back in his chair. He then crossed his arms.

Jack didn’t say a word for almost a minute, trying to figure out exactly how he was going to explain this. “Okay,” the man said, sitting straighter. “Back when I was in the Time Agency, John and I got an assignment. We were supposed to save this teenage girl and this woman from a bunch of Reavers on this terraformed planet that would almost resemble the Wild West of America. It was in the outer reaches of Human expansion in that time period. What we didn’t know was that these creatures called Weeping Angels were also there—They were these assassins that could only move when you weren’t looking. When you were, they looked like stone angels—Anyway, when we got there, we found Aurelia hiding in a closet. She said that her friend, the Scholar was already teleported away, and so were some of the Reavers. We tried to get her out, but failed. A lot of the Reavers that were zapped through time were hunted down, but the remaining ones were sent here, along with Aurelia.

“When we got back, I did a little research on the girl. It turned out that she was part of a government experiment to create the perfect assassin through the guise of a school for gifted, intelligent kids. The words ‘Eta kuram na cmekh’ are Russian for ‘that is for chickens to laugh at.’ It’s a trigger word that makes the agents deactivate, in a sense. They become unconscious. The scientists just started cutting into her amygdala when the Scholar broke her out, so she’s a little empathic. The two then began traveling together.”

“And the Reavers, what are they?” Toshiko questioned.

“No one in the core worlds believed them to be real. But a planet called Miranda used this airborne drug that made ninety percent of its population so calm, they laid down and died.” He watched the reactions of his team. So far, they seemed fine, but they won’t be for long. “The last ten percent went completely mad. Their ships surround the planet. Some of them have bodies tied to them. It’s said that if you encounter them, they’ll rape you to death, eat your flesh and sew your skin into clothing—not necessarily in that order.” 

“HARKNESS!!!” The girl’s voice boomed. It nearly scared them. 

“Was that her?” Gwen asked, already getting out of her seat. Jack couldn’t even get a word in before she ran off. When the woman got to her cell, Aurelia had already gotten out of her cuffs. The girl looked like she was crying. “Hello,” she said with a smile.

“You're scared,” Aurelia observed, sniffling and wiping her eyes. “So, very, afraid of losing your fiancé.” Gwen’s eyes widened with shock. A sad smile flashed on the girl’s lips. “I’m afraid too.” She stood up and began wandering around her cage. “No one’s said those words to me in two years. I always hated them.” Her eyes became glossy. “They’ve brought back so many memories. I’m in pain.” The girl pouted, turning her head to the cell to her left. “The Weevil next to me is quite bored, you know. When humanity first expanded, they began to think that they were alone just based on the fact that the planets near our solar system didn’t contain life. Then we found the Weevils, the Ood, Catkind.” The girl smiled at Gwen’s shocked face at the mention of cats. Aurelia walked up to the glass. “Have you come to get me out of here?”

Gwen moved her hair away from her face. “No, I’ve just come to see if you were okay.”

The teen’s face fell. “Oh.” She sat down on the bench. “How very disappointing. I assume that means you people have no idea what to do with me.”

Gwen gave her a blank expression. “I’ll be back.” The girl hummed, signifying that she heard her. The former police officer rushed back to the others. “Was it really necessary to say the kill switch? She’s in pain, deep emotional pain.”

“It was just a precaution, Gwen,” Jack told her. He faced the others and stood. “As of now, we have no way of sending her back, and I don’t think she’d want to anyway. And quite frankly, I’d like to keep an eye on her anyway.”

“What, and let her stay here in Torchwood?” Owen meant the idea in kidding, but the leader shot him a serious look. The medic frowned. “You’re not seriously thinking about letting a teenage assassin live in a top secret facility, are you?”

Gwen shifted her weight. “What about school, could she go to school?” The woman asked him.

Jack thought about this for a moment. “She doesn’t need school, really. By this time period’s standards, she’s already gotten the highest level of education she could get. Uh,” he tried to remember something else from her file. “Oh!” His fingers snapped. “According to Academy records, she excelled in languages, both on Earth and abroad, history of the galaxy, things like that.”

“We could use that,” Toshiko spoke up. They all turned to her. “She can tag all the alien technology by year and even the culture it was from.” She seemed excited. That was probably due to the fact that she now had a buddy to talk with about the history of everything they find.

“She could also help out on missions sometimes,” Ianto voiced. He stood, shifting his weight with his arms crossed.

“But she’s just a teenager,” Gwen stated, looking into the eyes of her coworkers. From her perspective, teenagers should live life, go to school, and such.

“She’s also a very capable killing machine,” Owen countered, giving the former policewoman a deadpan face. 

“Where would she stay then?” Gwen challenged.

The captain shrugged. “She can sleep here.”

“Are we sure that’s wise?” Sato questioned.

He outstretched his arms. “Where else is she gonna stay? Gwen and Rhys only have one bedroom. So does everyone else.” They all shared a look as he stood up. “Okay.” Harkness huffed. For him, it went without saying that they’d have to share the space. Yet, only Ianto knew that and the captain would like to keep it that way. “I’m getting her out of that cell.”

He walked over to the cells already knowing what she was angry at him. “Ah,” the teenager stated dryly upon seeing his arrival. “So the big man comes to visit me.” She frowned, trying not to let tears cry. “Do you have any idea of the grief you caused me by saying those words?” 

Jack’s tongue clicked on the roof of his mouth. “I’m sorry.” With his vortex manipulator, he opened the cell.

“I know.” Aurelia walked past him. “I assume I’ll be staying here?”

Harkness turned towards her. “That’s correct.”

She sighed. “Alright then.” 

Jack knew somehow that this teenager would bring trouble for them in the future. Just how far would be hard to tell. 


	2. The Gwyllgi

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Torchwood goes camping again in search of an unknown thing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was originally going to post this as a separate part, but decided to make this a second chapter of this part.

Owen would much rather be in the Hub for a week straight than spend the weekend in the woods. He could spend an eternity in the lab, but no, they had to be out in the wilderness because there was strange rift activity out here. 

What they were dealing with was unknown, but there has been one very large spike of Rift energy in the last two days. Then, campers started turning up dead. The reports all said there was a mysterious nerve agent that made their organs stop working. However, when Torchwood looked at the bodies, the corpses all held a look of sheer terror.

Walking around during the day had yielded them nothing, so they made camp. Paralleled to the last time Torchwood decided to do a camping trip, Mr. Harper struggled with pitching the tent.

“I wonder how Aurelia is doing,” Gwen stated, as she and Toshiko made their tarp dueling. Aurelia Arellano was a teenage assassin from the future who had recently joined their ranks. The girl’s been with them for a month now. Although, she’s not the most sociable teen.

“I’m sure she’s fine,” Owen stated, remembering when she slaughtered those Reavers. “After all she can handle herself. Heck, she _wanted_ to stay behind and guard the place while we were gone.”

Jack worried about the girl, but didn’t voice it. Since she too was living in the Hub, he heard her shouting from nightmares time and time again. Granted, he’s had his own fair share of sleepless nights, but a lot of what he’s experienced doesn’t exactly beat being experimented on by the government in a school meant for the best and brightest.

Meanwhile, in the Torchwood Hub, Aurelia sneezed. “Someone must be talking about me,” she muttered before writing something down in Mandarin. The girl then unstuck the sticky note from its pile and pressed it on one of the sides of her computer. It joined the many sticky notes that stuck to her small workspace. Most of them were little reminders of current Earth customs or cool things she learned about. Writing them in Mandarin adds a little extra fun to it since no one else on the team could read the characters. 

With the day’s worth of taking notes down and sorting everything by year and culture, Aurelia thought now would be a good time to do some research on the area the team went to.

The sky was beginning to darken. Everything was set up and most everyone had finished eating their food. Just as Owen was about to suggest a game of I Never, they heard howling.

“There aren’t any wolves in Wales anymore, right?” Toshiko questioned, scanning the area.

“That’s correct,” Ianto stated, getting to his feet with a stiff posture. He then faced Jack. “You think that thing could be it?”

“I thought it sounded almost like a Mastiff,” the captain muttered, resting his hand on his gun. 

Everything was silent for what felt like hours. They all stood around nervously. Every so often a glance would happen between them. They were all on edge now.

A scream slashed through the silence like a machete. At first they wondered if it was a fox, but judging by how it was cut off, they figured it was a person. So, they ran off into the direction of the blood curdling sound.

The group found a woman and a man standing in the middle of the path. Fear was clear on their faces. Jack touched two fingers to the pulse points on their necks. There was no pulse.

They head the howling again. It was closer this time. Gwen could have sworn she saw the shadow of a wolf. Glowing red eyes met hers and she instantly freezed.

“Gwen?” Owen noticed her not moving. He walked over to her. “Are you alright?” She didn’t answer him. “Hey, answer me!”

Ianto, spotting the same silhouette, shot at it. As soon as it appeared, it faded away. The man turned his attention to his coworkers. Owen was still trying to reach a petrified Gwen, Toshiko was scanning the area with a gismo, and Jack had just received a phone call.

“Yeah?” The Captain responded to the person on the other line. “What’d ya got Aurelia?” He put her on speaker.

They heard Gwen inhale and saw her become unparalyzed. “What the bloody hell was that?” She asked, breathing hard. Tosh gave her a look which asked if she was fine. The former police officer waved her off with a thumbs up.

“You ever hear of a Gwyllgi?” the teenager asked over the phone. 

“You mean the Black Dogs of Wales?” Ianto questioned, shifting his weight.

“Exactly, yeah,” Aurelia stated. “They stalk wandering travelers at night. If you’ve seen the silhouette of a dog, or heard something along the lines of a Mastiff, then just know not to look into its glowing red eyes. That’s how they paralyze you. But in order for the victims to die, they need to suck out your life force. That’s all I’ve got for you, unfortunately.”

“Thanks anyway,” Jack told her before hanging up. The captain faced Toshiko and asked, “Finding anything?”

“Only high levels of EMF,” the tech woman answered.

“So it’s a ghost,” Owen figured, sharing strange looks with his friends.

“Exactly.”

They heard the howling again. The group all turned their attention towards a Gwyllgi. It stood in front of them, but didn’t face them. 

What’s it doing?” Gwen questioned with her gun ready to fire at it. It barked.

“I think it wants us to follow it,” Jack stated.

With a huff, the mythological creature walked ahead of them. As the five of humans walked towards it, the beast took off through the woods. Owen cursed, starting to run after it. The others soon followed. Once deep enough into the woods, they started seeing a woman.

The Gwyllgi barked again towards her before disappearing. “Harkness, is that you?” Torchwood shared a look. They knew that voice. The owner of which was supposed to be in the Hub. “I’m glad.” Her breathing sounded off, as if something was injured. 

“Aurelia?” Gwen asked, rushing towards the woman. 

“It’s good to see you all alive and together,” Arellano wheezed. The others jogged up to her. The woman dying in front of them looked like an aged up version of Aurelia Arellano. She cleared her throat. “I’m sorry for the mess I caused you, but I don’t have much time. I established an empathic link with the Gwyllgi. It goes out and takes other people’s life forces and transfers them to me. I used the rift to get here, to see you all again before I died.” The hand that held her side let go to reveal a nasty wound.

Jack walked towards her. His eyes showed pity as he stared at her frail frame. “Why not appear in Cardiff? We could have helped you.”

“Cybermen attacked me and my crew. I was in a hast, miscalculated the jump. I came to warn you too, that the Lone Cyberman-“ she coughed up blood. She laid her head against the bark. 

“The Lone Cyberman what?” Harkness requested gently. Ianto visibly tensed. 

“Is a very dangerous son of a bitch.” She gave him a very dangerous stare. “You can’t let the Doctor give him what he wants.”

The captain could tell that her life was fading quickly and tried to keep her with them. “What does he want?” He received no answer. “What does the Lone Cyberman want, Aurelia?!” Still, not answer. The man quickly turned to the team’s medic. “Owen-“ 

He glanced at Aurelia’s wound. “She’s lost too much blood already, Jack,” Harper countered. Ianto bent down to check her pulse.

Jack barely took that information in. His hands made gestures. This man couldn't lose her like this. She had valuable information. “You are a doctor. You have medical equipment back at camp-“

“Sir, she’s gone,” Ianto voiced. Jack faced his lover before looking at Aurelia. 

“Let's pack up camp and take her back to base,” the captain decided reluctantly.

Toshiko stepped forward. “But sir, what about-”

Ianto, knowing what she was going to ask about spoke up. “Well, typically they’re omens of death, not causes of death. Presumably, now that the empathic link is severed, it won’t bother anyone.”

With heavy hearts, they went back to the Hub. The adults all tried to ignore the curious looks of the teenage version of Aurelia. 

“Blimey, you’re all sad and distracted,” she noticed, her empathic abilities working to her advantage. Toshiko and Gwen went right to their desks. Ianto’s lips pursed when he spotted the girl. Owen didn’t even look at her when he laid the body bag on the autopsy table. She wandered towards him. “Who’s the vic?” The medic softly glared into her eyes. “Oh no, what?”

Owen looked to Jack, who shrugged. The medic sighed before unzipping the bag. He watched as the teenager began to frown. Finally, she saw what had everyone down in the dumps. The cadaver looked like an older version of her, at least by a decade. She had the same black hair with bangs, the same ice-blue eyes, the same nose and chin shape. But this woman had a small scar on her right cheek.

“Gorram time travel,” she breathed out. “That’s me, isn’t it?”

“‘Fraid so, yeah,” Owen stated. “Approximately thirty years of age,” he said for the record. “Died of a stab wound to the liver of unknown origin.”

“Shit,” Aurelia said as she walked towards her future self's body. “How’d it happen?”

“Why, uh,” Harkness voiced, thinking of what to say. “Why don’t you come with me so he can work?” He walked towards his office. With a sigh, she followed after him.

“So what happened?” Aurelia questioned, leaning against the glass while he sat at his desk. 

The captain crossed his arms. “You miscalculated the jump from some time in the future to here. You claimed a group of cybermen attacked your crew. You came back to warn me about a person called the Lone Cyberman.”

She gave him a look. “Just you, not the team?”

“You said it was good to see them all alive again.”

Arellano studied the floor, swallowed, and nodded. “Ominous, but okay.” She remembered learning about Cybermen in school. Her orbs returned to his. “So, what now?”

Jack huffed. “I don’t know, and I don’t think I like not knowing. Not this time.”

“Alright.” She shrugged. “So we keep on keeping on.” She went back to her desk and back to work. The others became wary of her for just a second before quickly returning to their own work. The want to say something to the others died down soon enough. Somehow the atmosphere almost returned to normal.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don’t exactly like Series twelve Doctor Who, but I did think that the Cyberman arc thing was cool. (Mostly because of Captain Jack) but Y’know. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed these two chapters, I’ll see y’all soon.


End file.
